On March 19, the 20th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group took place at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany.
According to the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the meeting`s main priorities were to supply Ukraine with air defense systems as well as surface-to-air missile and long-range attack missile capabilities. Also considered were supplies of other necessities like artillery ammunition, electronic warfare and electronic intelligence systems, and armored vehicles.
Read more: Ukraine Expects €912 mln Worth of Military Aid From Germany and Belgium Coming Out of Ramstein Meeting
At the same time, the prioritization of air defense systems directly indicates that Ukraine is short of this kind of weapon, and the need is pressing. If the United States does not start providing sustained assistance, the situation will only get worse because many of the SAM systems in the Armed Forces of Ukraine use American missiles.
That is why the Ramstein-20 meeting was widely expected to become a platform for solving the issue of stalled surface-to-air missiles' supply, when political wrangling in Washington has blocked military aid for Ukraine.
And in these circumstances, other countries can really help. Earlier Defense Express described the backup option for supporting Ukraine with weapons without an approved budget but it requires third countries to step in and cooperate.
In particular, there is the Excess Defense Articles program for the transfer of surplus weapons at a minimal price. However, the condition is that logistics costs as well as restoration and repairing are paid by the recipient state. According to this program, the Pentagon can "write off" a certain amount of ammunition for air defense systems and then one of the countries will bear all the costs of transferring the weapons to Ukraine.
That aside, the necessary American surface-to-air missiles are also in service with other countries from NATO and beyond. In particular, the AIM-120 and AIM-9 missiles are the most common ones for fighter jets in the world, they are also used with NASAMS systems.
Under these circumstances, some countries may transfer these missiles to Ukraine and in return receive a discount to replenish their own stockpiles by ordering new missiles in the United States. The same can be applied to the AIM-7 missiles used in the Buk SAM systems modernized under the FrankenSAM project.
But the most important problem is with missiles for the MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile system. In Europe, only the joint venture between MBDA Germany and Raytheon produces interceptors for this system. However, the first order for this missile was awarded in January 2024. Despite being founded back in 1987, the enterprise has never produced new missiles of its own but provided maintenance to already made ones. Importantly, the type of missile manufactured at this industry is the GEM-T interceptor that can destroy non-ballistic targets only.
Another potential manufacturer of missiles for the Patriot SAM systems is Japan's Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, which has signed a license agreement with Lockheed Martin to produce interceptor missiles for the Patriot PAC 3. But despite the recent changes in export regulations, these missiles can only be supplied to the United States.
In other words, there is still a chance that Ukraine will receive surface-to-air missiles, but the methods resemble overly complicated schemes based upon promises and agreements between countries. They are, in fact, unnecessarily overcomplicated compared to a direct transfer of all the necessary weapons from the United States.
Earlier Defense Express reported that American M1117 APCs had arrived in Ukraine.
Read more: Unique SM-6 Missile System: With Longer Range than the Patriot, Capability to Destroy Aerial Targets at Distances up to 370 km
